You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. The criminal prosecution wasn't the only investigation of the Dookhan scandal. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. In addition to ordering the dismissal of many thousands of cases, the Supreme Judicial Court directed a committee to draft a "checklist" for prosecutors, clarifying their obligation to turn over evidence to defendants. Asked for comment, Foster in January objected through an attorney that the judge never gave her an opportunity to defend herself and that his ruling left an "indelible stain on her reputation.". The surveillance of the chemists as well as the standards and the confiscated drugs has also been increased considerably. After serving for 13 months, she was released on parole in 2015. Soon after, the state police took over the control, and the lab was moved to Springfield, where it remains under the supervision of the state police. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. "As the gatekeeper to this evidence, she failed to turn over documents, and she adamantly opposed the requests for access. Two Massachusetts drug lab technicians Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan were caught tainting evidence in separate drug labs in different but equally shocking ways. Heres what you need to know about Sonja Farak: Farak was born on January 13, 1978, in Rhode Island to Stanley and Linda Farak. In the eight and a half years she worked at the Hinton State Laboratory in Boston, her supervisors apparently never noticed she certified samples as narcotics without actually testing them, a type of fraud called "dry-labbing." "It was almost like Dookhan wanted to get caught," one of her former co-workers told state police in 2012. Not only did they not turn these documents over, but I wasnt aware that they existed, said Frank Flannery, who was the Hampden County assistant district attorney assigned to appeals following Faraks arrest. That settlement awaits approval by a judge. In 2019, the chemist was spotted at federal court in Springfield, MA , attending a civil case. She grew up in Portsmouth with her sister Amy. Grand Jury Transcript - Sonja Farak - September 16, 2015 Contributed by Shawn Musgrave (Musgrave Investigations) p. 1. After high school, Sonja went on to major in biochemistry at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in western Massachusetts. In an August 2013 email, Ryan asked Assistant Attorney General Kris Foster to review evidence taken from Farak. Even when she failed a post-arrest drug testprompting the lead investigator to quip to Kaczmarek, "I hope she doesn't have a stash in her house! As a teenager, she had attempted suicide. Farak wasn't the first Massachusetts chemist to tamper with drug evidence. Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to stealing samples of drugs from an Amherst drug lab. She was also under the influence when she took the stand during her trial. The Attorney Generals Office, Velis and Merrigan and the state police declined to answer questions about the handling of the Farak evidence. Still, the state was acquiring evidence. She's no longer in prison, as Farak has served her sentence. Who is Sonja Farak, the former state drug lab chemist featured in the show? Thanks to Farak's testimony and those diary worksheets, we now know that, soon after joining the Amherst lab in 2004, Farak started skimming from the methamphetamine "standard," an undiluted oil used as a reference against which suspected meth samples are compared. Lets find out. In worksheet notes dated Thursday, Dec. 22, Farak It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. One thing that How to Fix a Drug Scandal makes clear is that it wasnt all Sonja Faraks fault. One of the reasons for the decrepit state and standard of the Amherst lab was the lack of funds. If they'd kept digging, defendants might still have learned the crucial facts. It ultimately took a blatant violation to expose Dookhan, and even then her bosses twisted themselves in knots to hold on to their "super woman.". Another worksheet had the month and weekdays for December 2011, which police easily could have determined by cross-referencing holidays or looking up a New England Patriots game mentioned in one entry. His is one of what lawyers say could be thousands of convictions questioned in the wake of the Farak scandal. a certification of drug samples in Penates case on Dec. 22, 2011. She also starting dipping into police-submitted samples, a "whole other level of morality," as Farak called it during a fall 2015 special grand jury session. She received an email from a detective weeks after Farak's arrest containing detailed notes Farak made in conjunction with her own drug treatment, pointedly identified as "FARAK Admissions" but failed to disclose them for years. Sonja Farak worked as a chemist for the state of Massachusetts, specializing in identifying illegal substances. This was not true, as Nassif's department later conceded. "No reasonablejury could conclude that this evidence is not favorable.". Coakley did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Foster protested that portions of the evidentiary file in question might be privileged or not subject to disclosure. And both pose the obvious question about how chemists could behave so badly for years without detection. Only a few months after Dookhan's conviction, it was discovered that another Massachusetts crime lab worker, Sonja Farak, who was addicted to drugs, not only stole her supply from the. Per her own court testimony, as shown in the docu-series, Farak started working at a state drug lab in Amherst in 2004. Even before her arrest, the Department of Public Health had launched an internal inquiry into how such misconduct had gone undetected for such a long time. But whether anyone investigated her conduct during a brief stint working at the state's Boston drug lab is at . They never searched Farak's computer or her home. Judge Kinder ordered her to produce all potentially privileged documents for his review to determine whether they could be disclosed. Former chemist Annie Dookhan was convicted in 2013 on charges of improperly testing drug evidence at a drug lab in Boston. According to an Attorney General Offices report, Farak attended Temple University in Philadelphia for graduate school, which is where she became a recreational drug user. | Having barely investigated her, prosecutors indicted Farak only for the samples in her possession the day she was caught. The report "It is critical that all parties have unquestioned faith in that process from the beginning so that they will have full confidence in the conclusions drawn at the end," Coakley said. But the Farak scandal is in many ways worse, since the chemist's crimes were compounded by drug abuse on the job and prosecutorial misconduct that the state's top court called "the deceptive withholding of exculpatory evidence by members of the Attorney General's office.". Lab's standards on a fairly regular basis beginning in late 2004 or early 2005," the attorney general's report notes in launching its recounting of the chemist's drug-taking journey . The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the Amherst crime . (Featured Image Credit: Mass Live). State officials rushed to condemn her loudly and publicly. Despite clear indications that Farak used a variety of narcoticsher worksheets mentioned phentermine, and that vial of powdered oxycodone-acetaminophen had been found at her benchKaczmarek also proceeded as if crack cocaine were Farak's sole drug. Sonja Farak. Two Massachusetts drug-testing laboratory technicians are caught tampering with and falsifying drug evidence, and prosecutors are reluctant to disclose the full extent of their criminal behavior. Perhaps, as criminal justice scandals inevitably emerge, we need to get more independent eyes on the evidence from the start. Farak signed The prosecutors have been tied to the drug lab scandal involving disgraced former state chemist Sonja Farak, who admitted to stealing and using drugs from an Amherst state lab. Biden Embraces the Fearmongering, Vows To Squash D.C.'s Mild Criminal Justice Reforms, The Flap Over Biden's Comment About 2 Fentanyl Deaths Obscures Prohibition's Role in Causing Them, Conservatives Turn Further Against WarExcept Maybe With Mexico. If there's ever any uncertainty over "whether exculpatory information should be disclosed," the Supreme Judicial Court later wrote, "the prosecutor must file a motion for a protective order and must present the information for a judge to review.". Her notes record on-the-job drug use ranging from small nips of the lab's baseline standard stock of the stimulant phentermine to stealing crack not only from her own samples but from colleagues' as well. Penate is seeking a new trial, contending the conviction should be reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct and evidence tainted by Farak. Farak apparently still tested each caseunlike Annie Dookhan, another Massachusetts chemist who was arrested five months prior to Farak for fabricating test results. Maybe fatigue made them sloppy, or perhaps they actively chose to look the other way as evidence piled up about the enormity of Farak's crimes. Meier put the number at 40,323 defendants, though some have called that an overestimate. It's been like this forever, or at least since girlhood. And then the bigger investigation was going to be someone else.". Two weeks after Ryans discovery, the Attorney Generals Office Farak admitted to being on a list of drugs while working between 2004 and her 2013 arrest. | As he leafed through three boxes of evidence, he found the substance abuse worksheets and diaries. Ryan finally viewed the file in the attorney generals offices in October 2014. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. The governor also tapped a local attorney, David Meier, to count how many individuals' cases might be tainted. There is nothing to indicate that the allegations against Farak date back to the time she tested the drugs in Penates case. Foster That motion was denied, and the notice letters will explain Farak's tampering without any mention of prosecutorial misconduct. It was an astoundingly light touch for the second state chemist arrested in six months. Despite being a star child of the family, Sonja suffered from the mental illnesses that haunted her even in adulthood. "It was Defendant who had the responsibility within the AGO [attorney general's office] to see that the Farak investigation materials were disseminated to the DAOs [district attorneys' offices]," Robertson wrote, adding there is no evidence anyone from the attorney general's office sent the potentially exculpatory evidence to those offices.". Shawn Musgrave is a reporter who was until recently based in Boston. This immediately provoked questions about the thousands of cases in which her findings had contributed to the imprisonment of an individual. As . Farak started at Amherst lab in Aug 2004 p. 32. Even though Farak found a job after graduation and was settled down with her partner, she continued to struggle with depression and felt like a stranger in her body. Joseph Ballou, lead investigator for the state police, called them the most important documents from the car. Name. Episode 2. The charges against Penate were dismissed after Farak's conviction. After Faraks arrest in 2013, police found pages of mental health worksheets in her car indicating she'd struggled with drug addiction since at least 2011. Instead, Coakley's office served as gatekeeper to evidence that could have untangled the scandal and freed thousands of people from prison and jail years earlier, or at least wiped their improper convictions off the books. ", The chemist, Sonja Farak, worked at the state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, for more than eight years. Over time, Farak's drug use turned to cocaine, LSD and, eventually, crack. Massachusetts prosecutors withheld evidence of corrupt state narcotics testing for months from a defendant facing drug charges, and didnt release it until after his conviction, according to newly surfaced documents and emails. Chemist Sonja Farak pleaded guilty to "tampering with evidence" back in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. His report deemed Dookhan the "sole bad actor" at the lab, a finding that remains disputed in some circles. It didnt matter whether or not she was the one who did the testing or some other chemist. The disgraced chemist was sentenced to less than two years behind bars in 2014, following her guilty pleas for stealing cocaine from the lab. Defense attorneys had. The hotline is open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Officials recognized the worksheets for what they were: near-indisputable confessions. She was released in 2015, as reported by Mass Live. She was sentenced in 2014 to 18 months in prison and 5 years of probation. READ NEXT: Netflixs How to Fix a Drug Scandal Story: 5 Fast Facts, Sonja Farak: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know, Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. TherapyNotes. (Belchertown, MA, 01/22/13) Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, is arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown on charges that she stole cocaine and heroin while working as a. Judge Kinder denied Ryans motion. Mucha gente que vio el programa se pregunta: dnde est Sonja Farak ahora? This very well could have been the end of the investigative trail but for a few stubborn defense lawyers, who appealed the ruling. Despite such unequivocal findings of misconduct, the court removed language about Kaczmarek and Foster from notification letters to those whose cases have been dismissed, which will be sent out in early 2019. Instead, she submitted an intentionally vague letter to the judge claiming defense attorneys already had everything. The attorney general's officeKaczmarek or her supervisorscould have asked a judge to determine whether the worksheets were actually privileged, as Kaczmarek later acknowledged. But in a May 2003 started working in Hinton drug lab p. 14. Emma Camp In the only quasi-independent probe of the Farak scandal ever ordered, Attorney General Healey and a district attorney appointed two retired judges to investigate in summer 2015. "Because on almost a daily basis Farak abused narcoticsthere is no assurance that she was able to perform chemical analysis correctly," the judge found. She was also testifying in court while high. At this point, Farakunlike Dookhandidn't admit anything. Velis said he stood by the findings. Investigators gave that information to Kaczmarek and the state AG's office,according tohearings before thestate board that disciplines attorneys. In "How to Fix a Drug Scandal," a new four-part Netflix docuseries, documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr presents the stories of Massachusetts drug lab chemists Annie Dookhan and Sonja Farak, and . How to Fix a Drug Scandal: With Shannon O'Neill, Karl Kenzler, Paul Solotaroff, Scott Allen. Two detectives found Farak at a courthouse waiting to testify on an unrelated matter. Farak signed a certification of drug samples in Penate's case on Dec. 22, 2011. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Sonja Farak is the subject of Netflix's "How To Fix a Drug Scandal. Sonja Farak was a chemist at a state drug lab in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2013. Looking back, it seems that Massachusetts law enforcement officials, reeling from the Dookhan case, simply felt they couldn't weather another full-fledged forensics scandal. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. another filing. Meanwhile, other top prosecutors, including Coakley, largely escaped criticism for their collective failure to hand over evidence that they were bound by constitutional mandate to share with defendants. What Did Sonja Farak Do, Exactly? The results of that intake interview and notes from several of Farak's therapists all detailing Farak's drug use going back years were obtained by defense attorneys on behalf of . Kaczmarek argued the findings are subject to appeal. | 3.3.2023 4:50 PM, 2022 Reason Foundation | Psychotherapy Progress Notes, as shown above, can be populated using clinical codes before they are linked with a client's appointments for easier admin and use in sessions. Both have since left the attorney general's office for other government positions. The former judges and the state police officers who helped them conducted a thorough review, said Emalie Gainey, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey. Between the two women, 47,000 drug convictions and guilty pleas have been dismissed in the last two years, many for misdemeanor possession. Over the next four years, Farak consumed nearly all of it. food banks expect a surge, As streaming services boom, cable TV continues its decline. shipped nearly 300 pages of previously undisclosed materials to local prosecutors around the state. Ryan then filed a This threw every sample she had ever tested into question. Though. Regarding the cases that she had handled, the Massachusetts courts threw out every case in the Amherst lab during her tenure. The premise revolves around documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr following the effects of crime drug lab chemists Sonja Farak and Annie Dookhan and their tampering with evidence and its aftereffects.. Dookhan was accused of forging reports and tampering with samples to . The Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) is reviewing the actions of three prosecutors in the investigation of the scandal to determine whether any of them deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory evidence. You can check your records electronically by following this link: https://icori.chs.state.ma.us. Robertson rejected Kaczmarek's claims she should not be held responsible for the turning over of exculpatory evidence because she was not part of the "prosecution team" in Penate's case. ", But another co-worker was suspicious, particularly since he "never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope.". Farak was a former lab chemist at a lab in Amherst, Massachusetts and was convicted of stealing and using drugs from the lab where she worked. The lawsuit names Kaczmarek, Farak and three members of the state police. Two drug lab chemists' shocking crimes cripple a state's judicial system and blur the lines of justice for lawyers, officials and thousands of inmates. Compromised drug samples often fit the definition. With the lab's ample drug supply, she was able to sneak the drug each day from a jug that resided in the shared workspace. Inwardly though, Sonja was struggling. Its no big deal, 14-year-old Farak said to the Panama City News Herald. "I remember actually sitting on the stand and looking at it," Farak said of her first time swiping from evidence in a trafficking case, "knowing that I had analyzed the sample and that I had then tampered with it.". There were also newspaper articles about other officials caught stealing drugs, including one with a scribbled note, "Thank god I'm not a law enforcement officer."
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